Recently, I reviewed OffiSync, a product that promises to bring Google Docs, Apps, and Search into Microsoft Office. (Read the full review here.) My conclusion, after playing with the product for awhile, was that OffiSync is a nice (and free) additional to Microsoft Office if you use Google Docs or have friends co-workers that use it. However, OffiSync and Google Docs won't replace a more in-depth document collaboration platform, such as SharePoint, unless your needs are fairly basic.
Just a month and a half after that initial version, we have version 2 of OffiSync. So what's new? This can be mostly summarized in two points.
Google Images integration. Let's say you're creating a PowerPoint presentation for a school report, internal brainstorming meeting, or other event. You have several pages that you'd like to add images to, but you need to find those images off the web. With OffiSync, you can search Google images directly out of PowerPoint and filter them by colors used, usage rights, and more.
Google Search integration. In a similar vein to the image search, let's say you're writing a report in Microsoft Word. You need a bit of information from the web, such as the history of an event or a timeline. You can type your Google search directly into OffiSync, and it will bring up a browser with your results. Then, you can surf those sites and paste information into your document. (Granted, this isn't a huge enhancement over simply surfing the web and copy+pasting content, but it saves you a bit of time.
OffiSync should be available today. Visit www.offisync.com and click the download page. Or, to see the features for yourself, check out the video below:
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